Computing systems are becoming increasing interconnected through network environments. Such network environments may be centralized or decentralized. A decentralized computing environment may be defined by a number of computing systems interconnected to communicate with one another, wherein each computing system can perform both client and server functions. A peer-to-peer (P2P) network represents an example of a decentralized computing environment in which each computing system within the P2P network is defined as a peer of every other computing system within the network. For discussion purposes, each peer computing system within the P2P network is referred to as a node. Additionally, each node within the P2P network may be configured to execute software having substantially equivalent functionality. Therefore, each node may act as both a provider and a user of data and services across the P2P network. Peer to peer networks are distributed data networks without any centralized hierarchy or organization. Peer to peer data networks provide a robust and flexible means of communicating information between large numbers of computers or other information devices, referred to in general as nodes.
A P2P network relies primarily on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively low number of servers. P2P networks are typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for many purposes. P2P networks may be used, e.g., for sharing content files containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very common, and real-time data, such as telephony traffic, may also be transmitted using P2P technology. P2P applications often involve the use of a network address translator (NAT) to facilitate direct communication between peers. The NAT allows a user typically to have multiple networked computers share a single (global or routable) IP address for to access the Internet. The NAT intervenes in direct communication, so in many cases, P2P applications have to deal with the connectivity issues due to the NAT. Techniques used to overcome the connectivity issues are often called “NAT Traversal”. The process of Network Address Translation (NAT, also known as Network Masquerading, Native Address Translation or IP Masquerading) generally involves re-writing the source and/or destination addresses of Internet Protocol (IP) packets as they pass through a Router or firewall. Most systems using a NAT do so in order to enable multiple hosts on a private network to access a wide area network, such as the Internet using a single public IP address.
In addition to the convenience and low cost of NAT, the lack of full bidirectional connectivity can be regarded in some situations as a feature rather than a limitation. To the extent that NAT depends on a machine on the local network to initiate any connection to hosts on the other side of the router, it prevents malicious activity initiated by outside hosts from reaching those local hosts. This can enhance the reliability of local systems by stopping worms and enhance privacy by discouraging scans. Many NAT-enabled firewalls use this as the core of the protection they provide. Many network administrators find NAT a convenient technique and use it widely. Nonetheless, NAT can introduce complications in communication between hosts and may have a performance impact.
In a typical configuration, a local network may use one of the designated “private” IP address subnets and a router on that network has a private address in that address space. The router may be connected to the Internet with a single “public” address (known as “overloaded” NAT) or multiple “public” addresses assigned by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). As traffic passes from the local network to the Internet, the source address in each packet is translated on the fly from the private addresses to the public address(es). The router tracks basic data about each active connection (particularly the destination address and port). This internal “tracking” data is sometimes referred to as “NAT binding”. When a reply returns to the router, it uses the connection tracking data it stored during the outbound phase to determine where on the internal network to forward the reply; the TCP or UDP client port numbers are used to demultiplex the packets in the case of overloaded NAT, or IP address and port number when multiple public addresses are available, on packet return. To a system on the Internet, the router itself appears to be the source/destination for this traffic. Nodes behind NAT-enabled routers do not have true end-to-end connectivity (i.e., cannot send packets to all other nodes of the network, without requiring intermediate network elements to further interpret them) and cannot participate in some Internet protocols. Services that require the initiation of TCP connections from the outside network, or stateless protocols such as those using UDP, may be disrupted for such nodes unless the NAT router makes a specific effort to support such protocols, incoming packets cannot reach their destination. Some protocols can accommodate one instance of NAT between participating hosts (“passive mode” FTP, for example), sometimes with the assistance of an Application Layer Gateway, but fail when both systems are separated from the Internet by NAT. Use of a NAT may also complicate tunneling protocols such as Ipsec, e.g., if the NAT modifies values in the headers in a way that interferes with the integrity checks done such tunneling protocols.
Any IP enabled application that wants to connect to a network potentially faces problems associated with NAT. Most network applications and devices running dedicated network application software, especially peer-to-peer style applications, may be configured to independently determine the physical network topology they are on in order to best establish direct communications with other applications. This is commonly known as “NAT behavior discovery” or “NAT behavior determination”. This operation is well known in the industry, although some varying approaches exist. Existing approaches may often take a significant amount of time to determine NAT behavior. Existing NAT discovery techniques may also be problematic if multiple applications must do NAT discovery.
It is within this context that embodiments of the present invention arise.